Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
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Speaker 1: For the dilettantes and the distracted, it's time to start
Speaker 1: paying attention. Australias into the round of sixteen in the
Speaker 1: FIFA World Cup with a must win match.
Speaker 2: Against Egypt early on Saturday.
Speaker 1: Today are football expert Josh Whittington is here with a
Speaker 1: bluffer's guide. He'll break down the unexpected delights of this
Speaker 1: World Cup, how the global superstars stack up, and whether
Speaker 1: soccer is ready to truly take on league and Aussie
Speaker 1: rules For Australian's hearts.
Speaker 2: Josh is here in just a moment.
Speaker 1: Boys passing annotation, Hi.
Speaker 3: Says the goal for the whole lots of finish there
Speaker 3: it is another high point. If the soccer is World Cup.
Speaker 1: Journy, Well, for those of us who haven't been paying
Speaker 1: attention to the fee for World Cup until right now,
Speaker 1: it's business time. Suddenly we have to lock on the
Speaker 1: soccer whos are playing on the weekend and the games
Speaker 1: are getting to the business end of the tournament. I've
Speaker 1: brought in Josh Whittington, who's one of the Australians soccer experts.
Speaker 1: I think he would object to that title, just purely
Speaker 1: because I used the word soccer to tell us if
Speaker 1: we haven't been paying attention until now, what to pay
Speaker 1: attention to, if the soccer us have any chance and
Speaker 1: why this tournament has been so much more fun than
Speaker 1: anyone expected. Josh, let's start with the easy part. Do
Speaker 1: the soccer US have any chance of winning their game
Speaker 1: on early Saturday morning Australian time.
Speaker 3: Well, firstly, thank you for having me on, because I've
Speaker 3: known you for a long time and this is the
Speaker 3: first time you've invited me on to the front, so
Speaker 3: I'm very privileged.
Speaker 1: I think you'll find I've invited you on many times,
Speaker 1: but you've always been mysteriously too busy.
Speaker 3: So the Football World Cup, we should be excited because
Speaker 3: we are a definite chance of going through against Egypt.
Speaker 3: So for people that aren't necessarily aware of Egypt, they've
Speaker 3: got a couple of very well known players, one most
Speaker 3: Sala who would be known to most football fans past
Speaker 3: the one two school legitt and a couple of other ones,
Speaker 3: one from man City called Omama Mush who's very good
Speaker 3: as well. This is my Mush and.
Speaker 2: He scampers away from Nathan and court.
Speaker 3: Oh Mama Mush. But they are very beatable and as
Speaker 3: far as a drawer to get into the last sixteen
Speaker 3: of the World Cup, it's pretty good. So the timing
Speaker 3: of the game is not great. Four o'clock in the
Speaker 3: morning on a Saturday, so you're gonna have to get
Speaker 3: up early and put your cup of tea on, or
Speaker 3: for the younger fans you maybe leave the night club
Speaker 3: at three am and to just keep going. But yeah, no,
Speaker 3: get excited because we could win this game.
Speaker 2: The soccer RWs have had a long and sort of
Speaker 2: storied history.
Speaker 1: Australia's got their hopes up a few times about the
Speaker 1: soccer ruse and they've never quite captured. I think the
Speaker 1: national heart as well as the Matildas have.
Speaker 2: Cot be mine to take Samka, I never Tilda's why
Speaker 2: they've never mean football.
Speaker 3: No Australian team has ever reached the World Come semi final.
Speaker 1: Every single person in this country, you are part of
Speaker 1: this week?
Speaker 3: Thank you?
Speaker 1: Is this the moment where they eclipse the women and
Speaker 1: proves that they're really worth following?
Speaker 3: Oh that's a good question. You know what, before this
Speaker 3: tournament started, I would even say as a football fan,
Speaker 3: I probably knew more of the Matillas than this current team.
Speaker 3: So is that going to change? I don't think so.
Speaker 3: I don't think they have many superstars, but they are young,
Speaker 3: so I would say this tournament's maybe a step too
Speaker 3: early for them. But for you time, this team could
Speaker 3: be really good, so let's hope they win. I don't
Speaker 3: think this is going to have a major change on
Speaker 3: football in Australia because really what you need for the
Speaker 3: game to grow bigger is big superstars, and I'm not
Speaker 3: sure we have them right at the moment.
Speaker 1: The last game that the soccer has played in the
Speaker 1: World Cup was a nil all draw. Josh which to
Speaker 1: a non football fan like me, sounds like a major disappointment.
Speaker 2: How did you interpret that result?
Speaker 3: It was a terrible game. Don't let any football fan
Speaker 3: tell you what to do, but it was terrible. I've
Speaker 3: likened it in my column to realizing you're now qualified
Speaker 3: for a bow counter screening test. That's how exciting it was.
Speaker 3: But the point being that it was a very important game.
Speaker 3: There was a lot riding on it for both teams.
Speaker 3: Both teams were very happy for it to be a
Speaker 3: pretty dour draw so they got the point they needed. Look,
Speaker 3: it was one of those things that just had to
Speaker 3: be done. It was important. We did what we needed
Speaker 3: to do and now we move on it. I wouldn't guarantee,
Speaker 3: but I think this game against Egypt will be a
Speaker 3: lot more exciting.
Speaker 1: How have you found the sort of physical ordeal of
Speaker 1: following this World Cup? Your heating bill must be through
Speaker 1: the roof with all these middle of the night games
Speaker 1: and cups of tea.
Speaker 3: Well, exactly as someone that likes to watch every single
Speaker 3: game in some shape or form, this expanded tournament, because
Speaker 3: this tournament is far bigger than any previous World Cup.
Speaker 3: There's forty eight teams and there's means a lot more games,
Speaker 3: and a lot more early mornings, and a lot more
Speaker 3: trying to work out how to work SBS is app
Speaker 3: to get mini matches and everything. To be honest as
Speaker 3: a fan, it's probably been too much. I am sort
Speaker 3: of this struggle and we still got thirty two teams
Speaker 3: in there, just about to give you sixteen teams. So
Speaker 3: there's a lot more to come, that's the amazing thing.
Speaker 3: I feel like I'm sort of on the edge already.
Speaker 1: So if Australia does triumph over Egypt on Saturday morning,
Speaker 1: what happens after that, Well.
Speaker 3: They'll go through the round sixteen and if all things
Speaker 3: go to what they should, they'll probably play Argentina, which
Speaker 3: is it goes from having a good draw to having
Speaker 3: a terrible draw.
Speaker 2: Even I know that's a daunting prospect.
Speaker 3: Yes, they're probably one of the favorites for the whole thing.
Speaker 3: Most people, if they don't know football, have heard of
Speaker 3: Leo Messi, who is having a good tournament for someone
Speaker 3: of a ripe old age that he's at mass flying forward.
Speaker 3: We so look, it's not what we want, or maybe
Speaker 3: it is. Maybe it's the game that we do want
Speaker 3: because it gets everyone's attention, the world will be watching.
Speaker 3: Gives people an opportunity to overperform. I think it's been
Speaker 3: a great achievement for them to make it this far.
Speaker 3: So if they beat Egypt, that'll be well well overachieving,
Speaker 3: so touchwood.
Speaker 1: One of the joys of this tournament from the outside
Speaker 1: has been seeing the fans enjoying themselves across the American
Speaker 1: cities where these games are being played, Norwegians rolling in
Speaker 1: the stands, Scottish people just kind of drinking everywhere, seeing
Speaker 1: great songs.
Speaker 2: What have you enjoyed about the way people are enjoying this.
Speaker 3: There is nothing like a World Cup. I've been lucky
Speaker 3: enough to go to a few, and I can still
Speaker 3: remember inadvertently walking onto a bus and ending up on
Speaker 3: a bus with entirely packed with Swedish fans, and then
Speaker 3: having to pretend I was singing along till all the time.
Speaker 3: You would have.
Speaker 2: Fitted right in, you would have merged, you would have
Speaker 2: melded in with the well.
Speaker 3: Well, I did have a soccer whose stop on. Maybe not,
Speaker 3: but the beauty of it is there's nothing like football
Speaker 3: fans at a World Cup. It's just a party and
Speaker 3: it's everyone's happy and everyone's mixing, and although football has
Speaker 3: a reputation of violence and crowd violence, never really happens
Speaker 3: at a World Cup. There's generally a good vibe. I've
Speaker 3: been really happy to see the scenes that this World Cup.
Speaker 3: It just seems like it's a great festival football sort
Speaker 3: of feel to it.
Speaker 1: That's a cliche, isn't it, that this is a festival
Speaker 1: and not a competition. We hear that about everything from
Speaker 1: the athletics Carnival to the journalism awards, and in fact
Speaker 1: the opposite is true.
Speaker 2: It's absolutely a competition.
Speaker 1: Who would be the kind of popular favorite to win
Speaker 1: the whole tournament and who's the kind of dark horse.
Speaker 3: Well, I'll just say, firstly, I've never won a journalism award,
Speaker 3: so I just have that on the record. But well,
Speaker 3: the popular favorite at every World Cup is Brazil. Like
Speaker 3: everyone loves Brazil. It's just easy, super start. I think
Speaker 3: they've won the most well of anyone. They've got some
Speaker 3: of the most famous players in the world, and they're
Speaker 3: fans sort of embody that sort of beautiful game. I'm
Speaker 3: partial to France because I just think they've got the
Speaker 3: best array of talent and I think they've got the
Speaker 3: best footballer in the world in Killean and Babe.
Speaker 2: Who's having an incredible tournament as well, isn't he.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and some people might argue with that, but yeah,
Speaker 3: I think France to the team that would be the
Speaker 3: favorites stop after a French store. Then you'd have Brazil
Speaker 3: probably the crowd favorites, and then people love Leo Messi
Speaker 3: and people love Ronaldo, so you know, Portugal and Argentina
Speaker 3: have probably got a lot of fans as well.
Speaker 1: There's been some high profile kind of knockouts, haven't there already.
Speaker 1: Germany's out of the World Cup, which was a surprise
Speaker 1: to me but maybe not to you.
Speaker 3: I no, definitely surprise, but I'll upset the German listeners
Speaker 3: to this podcast. But I love seeing Germany go out.
Speaker 3: They've been successful for a long time. When I was
Speaker 3: going up, they never lost a penalty shootout, so I
Speaker 3: was very surprised to see them go out. But look,
Speaker 3: it's good for the game. The one good thing about
Speaker 3: this tournament is we've got a lot of good other
Speaker 3: teams that we haven't been at World Cups before, and
Speaker 3: there's only eight countries that have won the World Cup
Speaker 3: in the history of it so to see other teams
Speaker 3: come through and some of the big boys go out, well,
Speaker 3: I think that's good for the sport. So slightly disappointed
Speaker 3: to see the big teams go out, but Germany and
Speaker 3: Holland go on, bring it on. Yeah, I'm happy about it.
Speaker 1: Coming up what this World Cup could mean for football
Speaker 1: in Australia. Football in Australia is going through a huge
Speaker 1: period of transition. Obviously, the advent of the Matilda's into
Speaker 1: the popular imagination has inspired girls all over Australia to
Speaker 1: take up football. Last time I paid attention to the
Speaker 1: men's game in Australia, there were a lot of people
Speaker 1: letting off flares and starting fights. That seems to have
Speaker 1: changed as well. Where do you see Australian football now?
Speaker 1: And how much does it matter whether or not the
Speaker 1: soccer Who's triumph or not at this World Cup?
Speaker 3: Yeah, good question and we could probably be here all day.
Speaker 3: But the soccer is have not missed the World Cup
Speaker 3: since two thousand and six, so we are doing remarkably
Speaker 3: well to make them and it probably for someone that
Speaker 3: is into the game, you sort of get this every
Speaker 3: four years, the sort of nation wakes up to it
Speaker 3: a little bit and you see the shirts around again
Speaker 3: and people sort of start telling your names and players.
Speaker 3: But it doesn't really have a huge effect long term
Speaker 3: on the league. The A League is not in great shape,
Speaker 3: crowds are not great, its administration is not great. So look,
Speaker 3: every four years you hope that it'll have some sort
Speaker 3: of effect on the sport. I think the real impact
Speaker 3: of the sport will be the Matilda's. I think that
Speaker 3: is massive for Australian football because they are, you know,
Speaker 3: one of the most well liked sporting teams in the
Speaker 3: country and got so many more girls playing than when
Speaker 3: I grew up. So I think that will actually have
Speaker 3: a really big effect on football in Australia, probably more
Speaker 3: so than the soccer.
Speaker 1: Who's to be honest, as a participation sport too, it's
Speaker 1: got the appeal to mums and dads that rugby league
Speaker 1: and rugby union even AFL are going to start struggling
Speaker 1: more with. I think as awareness grows about the impact
Speaker 1: of head trauma, that is certainly an issue also in
Speaker 1: football in soccer, but much less so than in those
Speaker 1: heavy contact sports. Do you think the game is kind
Speaker 1: of set up in Australia to know what to do
Speaker 1: with a generation of kids who are going to grow
Speaker 1: up with soccer as the game that they are playing
Speaker 1: on the weekend.
Speaker 3: No is my short answer to that. You'll find a
Speaker 3: lot of like me. To be honest, I grew up
Speaker 3: playing football, but I still love my rugby league and
Speaker 3: my rugby Union and even my Ossie Rules. So you'll
Speaker 3: find there's a lot of Ossies that play when they're young,
Speaker 3: that participation rates are really high, but there is not
Speaker 3: a real pathway beyond that because our big sports are
Speaker 3: still dominated by the rugby and the Ossie rules codes.
Speaker 3: So you'll find a kid like Lucas Herrington, who played
Speaker 3: for Australia in the last game. He's only eighteen. He
Speaker 3: did play in the league and then got signed by
Speaker 3: a US team and he's now being courted by some
Speaker 3: European teams. So that's probably the pathway that these kids have.
Speaker 3: So we don't get the real talent in Australia playing,
Speaker 3: which has a flow on effect that maybe you don't
Speaker 3: get the crowds going to watch it because the talent's
Speaker 3: not there. They prefer to watch the European leagues or
Speaker 3: the Premier League, etc. So look, yeah, the pathways. It's
Speaker 3: a difficult one for a strange football to fix. I
Speaker 3: don't pretend to have the answer to it, to.
Speaker 1: Be honest, Well, in your other life, Josh, you are
Speaker 1: also an expert in rugby league and very annoyingly thrash
Speaker 1: me in our office tipping competition and in super Coach,
Speaker 1: So I can't let you go without asking what your
Speaker 1: tip is for Origin three.
Speaker 3: I am doing terribly in tipping and super coach, though
Speaker 3: that must mean you're doing even worse.
Speaker 2: Yeah, these things are relative.
Speaker 3: I'm a proud New South walesh and get very passionate
Speaker 3: about Origin. But I don't want to offend Lori daily
Speaker 3: because he seems We've got very upset at any criticism.
Speaker 3: But they're not going to win. Queensland will win. Sorry guys,
Speaker 3: sorry to say it. I hope we don't, but I
Speaker 3: think get been pretty badly. Sorry.
Speaker 1: It feels like it's time for generational change, doesn't it.
Speaker 1: Maybe they should make cur and four in the loose coach.
Speaker 3: Well, bring in Ivan Clary as soon as you can.
Speaker 3: That's my thought. It's another year of thinking we've got
Speaker 3: a pretty good team, but we just get been a
Speaker 3: superior collective in Queensland. Unfortunately.
Speaker 1: Well, Josh, I'll be waking up with you at four
Speaker 1: o'clock on Saturday morning. I'll be sending you a text
Speaker 1: to make sure you're installed in front of the sofa,
Speaker 1: and I'll be holding to your predictions.
Speaker 3: I'm going to call you. I'm going to call you
Speaker 3: and just make sure you're watching. Thanks Josh, Thank you.
Speaker 1: Josh Whittington is The Australian's national news edit up and
Speaker 1: he writes a must read soccer sorry football column at
Speaker 1: the Australian dot com dot au, where you can follow
Speaker 1: all the World Cup action live